Breakdown

Anger management, preschool style.

Two weeks ago, untitledson started preschool montessori. I’ve been researching montessoris since he was one, and he has been on this waiting list since then. Yeah, I know. TWO YEAR WAITING LIST FOR PRESCHOOL. When his number finally came up, we switched him over from his old daycare, where he learned such gems as the index finger gun and the word “stupidhead.”

All in all, I’ve been quite impressed with the montessori teachers, the curriculum and the other parents. During new parent orientation, I looked around and saw kindred spirits. There we sat, bound by the organic milk in our grocery carts and our devotion to “Noggin.” I must say it was comforting to see that other parents fret entirely too much about the high fructose corn syrup in the yogurt.

Given all the love, attention and obsession that I’ve invested in this child, you can imagine my horror when his montessori teacher told me that the thing he needs to work on most is his temper. His temper! Good god almighty, my angel has a temper. Watching him do the crocodile death spin across our living room floor because I refused to let him watch “Mickey Mouse Cluvhouse” (as he calls it) for the fourth time in one morning told me as much.

She said he is “extremely, extremely bright” (her exact words, and I’m not about to let this sentence come to pass without expressing this), but there are occasional outbursts. She then went on to explain how he had hit one of his teachers and put one of his classmates in a headlock on the playground yesterday. Well well. How very WWF of you, untitledson. His teacher feels this is just part of his adjustment — he’s testing his boundaries. I’m curious to know if this behavior falls under the realm of normal for a three year-old boy, or if he’s one bitch slap away from montessori expulsion.